Yeah, there's Montreal and there's the rest of Quebec. Super cosmopolitan versus … not. But even lefty Quebeckers have a hard time on issues of race and religion. I remember during the '95 sovereignty referendum, Quebec's First Nations had their own vote on whether they would want to remain in Canada or an independent Quebec. The French separatists quickly said that Indigenous people's wishes were irrelevant. Yeah, you're principled bastards, ain't ya?

Oof...the not-Montreal part is so true. My hometown has a huge population of Quebecer and Aroostook County, Maine emigrants who made lateral moves from the forestry industry to construction in Southern New England. Lots of "Theriault" and "Thibideaux" and "Ouellette" last names in my high school yearbook, kids whose parents spoke only French at home, and long holiday road trips to see the in-laws up in Fort Kent. They were both on the receiving ("You choppa da wood, eh?") and giving (did I mention Bristol had CT's last active KKK chapter before its leader got sent to prison for illegal gun-running?) end of a lot of knuckle-dragging racial, ethnic, and religious "discourse". Even more confusing was you'd literally have people with the same last names calling each other epithets, because one person picked up a francophone last name from a place of family origin and one picked up a francophone last name from a local marriage certificate where the "-eau" displaced the "-ski" in the maiden name.

Wow. I had no idea that Frenchy populations of any significance still exist as far south as CT. I thought they were all within, like, 75 miles of the border.

(But seriously, wouldn't you change your name? I had a customer when I worked at my parents' store named Jennifer Hittler. Talk about the most banal/basic/mundane first name with a tad controversial last name).